scene but not herd

Finally had the opportunity to see the Undertones documentary that I have been wanting to see for about a year and a half. I was going to see it at an Irish film festival at the American Cinematheque, but nooooooooo! My job decided I should work some overtime that night so I was out of luck. I was really worried I would never have a chance to see it because I don't imagine there's a huge demand to see a documentary about an Irish punk band. Thankfully it was just released on dvd so of course I had to get it. I missed out on them when they were still together and I didn't buy anything by them until about 1986 when I was really in love with the Shop Assistants, the Pastels, the Mighty Lemon Drops, and all those other C86 bands. I've always thought about the Undertones in tandem with the Buzzcocks. I don't know if it is correct to say that they both fall into the sweet side of punk, if such a thing exists. The Buzzcocks certainly were more worldly and their lyrics said the most simple things in such a beautiful manner . I just really love the use of words in those songs. The Undertones were more straight up, heart on your sleeve kind of music. Certainly at their beginning there was no signs of cynicism and that is pretty astonishing given the political climate in the 1970's of their hometown of Derry in Northern Ireland. The documentary covers their history and it is basically hosted by the famous DJ John Peel. I already discussed Rodney Bingenheimer, but John Peel deserves a documentary of his own. In my teens I dreamed of being able to listen to his show and all the four song sessions he would do with different bands. Anyway... John Peel is probably their biggest fan and he was the first to play their "Teenage Kicks" single and it seems the band members feel very comfortable telling their history to him on camera. "It's Going To Happen" is probably my favorite song by the band. It just has this great opening that I can listen to over and over again and it's simply a slow build up of guitars and horns. I was really surprised to hear that it is basically about the hunger strikes that occurred there whereas I always pictured it as a song about a girl finally falling for you. After the band broke up the O'Neill brothers went on to the band That Petrol Emotion. I'm kind of saddened that I don't hear people talk about them anymore. They were really great and they certainly didn't veil their feelings about "the troubles" in any way. So in about two or three days I've seen two really good documentaries which reaffirm my passion for music.

Saturday I finally got around to buying Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson album. I like it, but two cuts really stand out: "Melody" and "Cargo Culte." They are both similar songs, very quiet and slow. Spoken lyrics with basically just a bass, guitar, and drums back up. The guitar has a really nice electric tone that breaks out every now and then throughout the songs. "Melody" has these amazing sounding string parts that suddenly appear. I read somewhere that Beck ripped off this album and this is the song they must have been referring to because it is quite similar to Beck's "Paper Tiger." "Cargo Culte" is very similar to "Melody," but instead of the strings it has a great vocal choir appearance. I find myself listening to these songs over and over again. I'm going to have to investigate more of Gainsbourg's catalog from this time period.